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After a satisfying breakfast, which ran over several hours as people rose at various times, Aaron gathered them all in the library for a briefing. Katerina avoided Noah, sitting with Josiah instead.
“The good news is that everything is no longer all on Katerina and Noah,” Aaron began. “Now we have Madeleine and Josiah too — although Zeus will easily recognize them, which may complicate things. The bad news is that Zeus and Diana know we’re coming, so we probably won’t be able to reach them as easily as we did Alexandre and Demetra. They’ll be far too suspicious and too well-protected.”
“What are we going to do then?” Katerina asked.
“We’re not sure about Diana yet, but we’re going to bring Zeus to us. We’ve discovered he has housed his most valuable treasure in Chalcedonia. We’re going there and we’re going to steal it. We’ll make him come to us to get it back.”
“How will we do that? How will we get there?”
“We have a professional thief coming to assist us. She’ll know what to do. We’ll be travelling by boat to the area then hiking directly into Chalcedonia. We leave in two hours. You need to pack your clothes and get ready. Madeleine and Josiah, Eva has more clothes for you. And Katerina, I need to talk with you privately.”
After the room had emptied out, Aaron wasted no time coming to the point. “Are you and Noah going to be alright?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You’ll be together for some time yet. I need to know that what happened last night won’t become a problem.”
“It won’t. I can handle him.”
He studied her a moment then nodded, satisfied. “Okay. You’d better be cautious around Josiah too; we don’t yet know the extent of what he was put through.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zeus may have had him brainwashed, Madeleine too. It depends how interested Zeus was in them and how suspicious.”
“I haven’t picked up anything —the ring hasn’t shown me anything about Josiah yet.”
“That’s good, but do bear in mind that if you don’t want to see the truth, the ring won’t show it to you. I know Josiah is in a bad way and has been through a lot but do focus on being cautious around him for now, just in case. Eva knows much more about the ring than I do and she believes you need to learn how to use it properly. You need to cultivate the ability to find truth for yourself. The more you do that, the more clearly the ring will enlighten you.”
“That makes sense I guess. It certainly hasn’t lit up and shown me anything startling since I’ve been wearing it.”
“It should increase in strength the more you wear it and the more you look for truth for yourself. So keep your eyes open, especially with Josiah.”
“Alright, I’ll be careful. Anything else?”
“That’s all. You’d better get ready to leave,” Aaron returned, amused by her tone. But he watched her leave with concern in his eyes.
They walked several blocks to the east, a direction they had not yet travelled. Surprisingly they reached a huge, wide river stretching far into the distance, which Aaron called the River Arruns. They were at the mouth where several boats bobbed idly in a slight current, abandoned yet seeming content to be so. Aaron led them to a rowboat tied to the riverbank and they were ferried out to another, bigger boat in small groups: Josiah, Katerina and Karim, followed by Alice, Noah, Madeleine and Aaron.
Eva was staying behind to establish herself as ruler of Cereise. She said a loving goodbye to Aaron while Katerina looked awkwardly away, reminded again of Noah’s passionate kiss and humiliation the previous day.
They were travelling in a flat-bottomed river boat aptly named Chamelia as its color blended well with the murky blue-green water. There was a wheelhouse which Karim claimed as his. Behind it was a long, covered galley with bunks to the fore, clearly to be partitioned off from the rest of the galley at night by the heavy curtain pulled to one side. Halfway down was a small kitchen area with a stove, sink and cupboards and at the back, seats screwed to the floor at various angles to each other.
“This is home for a few days,” Aaron explained, “So welcome. We should be relatively safe — this boat changes color to match the environment around it so it’s very hard to discover. Hopefully Zeus won’t see us coming.”
They found their own spaces quickly. Noah, Alice, Madeleine and Aaron sat inside playing a local board-game which Aaron taught them. Katerina, continuing to avoid Noah, settled outside with Josiah watching the shore pass by.
They did not talk much, just sat companionably swinging their legs over the water. Every now and then Josiah would ask Katerina questions about her life back home or what they had done while he was in captivity. She answered agreeably, enjoying his attention, choosing to ignore the fact that Noah was watching them surreptitiously as he played his game from inside. He had a clear view of them from his seat and his face suggested he did not like what he saw.
They discussed Josiah’s captivity too, although only briefly for he confessed it was hard to talk about. He admitted, “I really had lost all hope when Aaron’s people got me out.”
“I can’t even imagine what it was like. I’m so sorry that happened to you,” Katerina said gently.
He shuddered, lost in memories, “When Zeus told me he would never let us out, I was certain I was going to die in there...”
“So you did meet Zeus? What’s he like?”
“Awe-inspiring. And not in a good way. Let’s talk about something else...like how many boyfriends you’ve had...” She laughed and left the subject alone then.
After an hour, once they had traversed a number of bends in the river, the world began to close in on them as the vegetation grew denser and more invasive. The plant life morphed into heavy jungle so Katerina and Josiah started their own game; looking for animals in the thick undergrowth.
Two hours in, Josiah offered to make Katerina something to eat. When he moved into the galley to do so, Noah rose immediately as if he had been waiting for the opportunity, ducking under the door frame and taking a seat beside Katerina. She kept her face turned away to hide the emotions she was sure were evident, despite her attempt to mask them.
“Katerina,” he began awkwardly. “I wanted to explain...”
“So explain...”
“I didn’t want to declare how I felt about you in front of them all.”
“And how do you feel about me?” She was still avoiding his gaze.
He was silent a long while then said, “You’ve got to understand, this is difficult for me. I’m not used to feeling this way about someone. I’m out of my depth here...I panicked and I hurt you. Can you forgive me?”
She glanced surreptitiously at the truth ring. It was hard to tell but it looked to be tinged with gold, and he sounded so genuine she sighed. “I can forgive you but I don’t feel like I can trust you anymore. What do you want from me?”
“For things to be as they were.”
Anger flared instantly and she turned to glare at him. “You humiliated me! You kissed me then said you feel nothing for me. You lied — whether to me or to them I don’t know, but I just can’t trust you now...”
“What can I do to fix this?”
“Nothing,” she said, suddenly tired. “I need space. I just want to do what we have to do and go back home.”
“Please, Kat...” Noah reached a hand out to her.
Behind him Josiah said, “You heard her. She’s done with you.”
“What are you, her bodyguard?” Noah rose to his feet, thinly-veiled anger in his voice.
“If I need to be,” Josiah returned. The two faced off for long, tense moments, neither willing to back down.
Watching them, Katerina did not see it coming. One minute she was trying to work out what she felt, what she wanted; the next her legs were suddenly seized and she was yanked abruptly into the air. She screamed and kept screaming, dangling above the deck as Noah and Josiah froze in shock at the sight of the huge, scaly tentacle wrapped tightly around her body.
Aaron was out of the galley in an instant. He yanked open a locker near the door and threw a harpoon to Noah, yelling, “Fire at its eyes — everything else is too thick to penetrate!”
They ran to the railings and looked overboard to see the water foaming, stirred up by the movements of a freshwater leviathan, barely visible beneath its wrathful spume. Through the boiling water, Noah caught glimpses of its two beady, dark purple eyes and fired instantly. Aaron fired too and one of the harpoons struck the beast dead center. A piercing wail emanated from it, mingling with Katerina’s screams, as the arm retracted over the boat, swinging her back towards the creature’s head. Aaron was already firing again. As the second shaft hit, the monstrous arm released Katerina. She fell into the foaming water and was lost to their sight. Without a second thought, Noah dropped his harpoon and went over the side after her.
The water was murky; mud and silt stirred up by the beast’s thrashing. He threw himself towards the place where Katerina had disappeared, trying to avoid the creature’s flailing arms. He caught one blurry glimpse of her and dived forward frantically, managing to catch hold of her wrist. She was unconscious, eyes shut and his heart stopped with fear. He tried to get her head up above the water, but another tentacle had wrapped itself around one of his feet now. He tried to call for help but gulped a mouthful of river water instead.
Panic set in and he began thrashing wildly himself, trying to get free as the creature pulled him under. Just as he ran out of air, his head beginning to spin with lack of oxygen, suddenly Aaron was there with a long blade, slashing brutally at the tentacle holding Noah. The water began filling with ink-purple blood. The creature’s arms went wild, flailing so frantically neither man could see. Noah held onto Katerina for dear life, and Aaron gripped onto him.
Then, finally, the creature recoiled, leaving them alone.
Noah gasped, retching water, paddling to keep afloat. Together, awkwardly, he and Aaron swam Katerina back to the boat lifting her hastily up to Karim and Josiah’s waiting hands. When her body tumbled onto the deck, Karim cleared her airways instantly and started administering mouth to mouth.
Exhausted, Noah clambered onto the boat too and swiped the water off his face, watching through eyes that filled unexpectedly with tears. He didn’t bother brushing them away. Behind him, Aaron also climbed aboard and went straight to the unconscious girl, placing his hand on her head, shutting his eyes and praying silently, as he had over Noah aboard the plane all those days ago.
They all waited in fearful silence for some sign of life, as Karim continued to work on Katerina. The moments passed by achingly slowly. Beside the boat the water began to subside and settle. The monster had retreated completely, and calm fell.
To Noah, it felt like Katerina’s recovery was taking too long; that she wasn’t going to make it. But she had to! The thought of her dying was unbearable. He found himself gasping for breath, as if he was still drowning, as if he was trying to breathe for her.
And then, just as they all were on the verge of losing hope, Katerina started convulsing and vomiting up dirty river water.
Relieved, Noah collapsed in exhaustion against the side of the boat, closing his eyes as they carried her inside. Alice came to him, put her hand on his shoulder and said softly, “That was very brave of you brother.”
“I would do anything for her,” he breathed quietly, pain in his voice.
“I see that,” his sister said. She waited a moment then followed the others inside.
The evening passed uneventfully after that. Katerina had a lukewarm shower in a small bathroom nestled between the wheelhouse and the bunkroom. Then she went to bed, quickly falling into a deep sleep. One by one the others went to bed too, until only Karim kept watch through the night.
